Better Together Through HebrewsSýnishorn

Running the Race

The healing benefit of community is easily overlooked, yet hard to ignore. Many studies prove that life is better together, but while science shows us the value of community for our health, the truth is that we need more profound healing. I’m not referring to sin. Jesus took care of our penalty and punishment for sin. I’m referring to life—our souls—our ability to operate in this world. Perhaps the reason we still struggle with the ailments of anxiety, self-doubt, and a short fuse has more to do with our lack of community than our lack of self-control.

Though we might achieve healing from pain by being with people, often the cause of the pain in the first place is because of people. Someone hurt us, someone burned us, and we’ve vowed, never to trust again, even if healing is the goal. While reaching out to connect with others may be humiliating or even scary, the payoff is always greater. Being better together may start with a plunge into the unknown abyss of awkward and uncomfortable social interaction, but the results may be evident in many more ways than imagined. 

In the letter to the Hebrews, the author reminds us that together we can find healing from all that holds us back in this race of life we run.

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Hebrews 12:1 NLT

“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down.” What is the weight that entangles or hinders us? The image is of running a race, and you keep tripping on your shoestrings or your coat that hangs too low. Maybe this is like the ankle weights that were the craze of the ’80s that were somehow supposed to make you run faster. The idea is to get rid of what is holding us back.

It isn’t sin; rather, it’s our brokenness we deal with on a daily basis. The things that get in the way of our growth in Christ, the things that keep us from discipleship. A hurt, a habit, a hang-up. These are the things that keep us from authentic relationships. These cause cancerous relationships. These cause ailments in commitments. These cause us to limp our way through our lives. And yet these are the things that community can heal. It may heal your body, as medicine documents. But it can certainly bring healing to your weary soul. 

In all of our efforts to find healing for ourselves, or ask God to heal us or others, we forget the vital role of God using us to help bring healing to others. Sometimes the resources we can provide are financial, sometimes they are physical, and sometimes they are emotional. Simply being with someone, walking them through chemo or a rough day, bringing someone a meal—all of these gestures not only help bring healing to others, but they even bring healing to ourselves. 

For others to run with us, they need to know what leg limps. They need to know our pain, and we need to know theirs so that we can keep running the race, together. As the first part of Hebrews 12:1 points out, we have a cloud of witnesses running with us. We are only as alone as we want to be.